Board 8 > red13n ranks all 74 Smash Ultimate Characters

(+) Yeah! (+)

The Smash Ultimate Gang Plank Galleon remix is so good
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#25: Ken

You can't have Ryu without Ken, unless its Marvel, in which case Ken is missing because who knows why. As such...

#24: Ryu

These two go together, because having one without the other just isn't right. If you are going to have Ryu, you might as well let Ryu and Ken fight each other. Basically every leak had Ken because they saw one leak that was probably real that had Ken and were like "Yeah that is obvious lets make sure to include him in our fake leak". And thus people were gullible and started buying a whole bunch of dumb shit because they included obvious inclusion Ken. Putting Ryu in Smash is pretty awesome, and doing the Hadoken motion to create Hadokens is pretty damn satisfying. They are somehow really true to their Street Fighter forms(Ken has been seen doing some of his traditional basic combos in trailers, which is pretty awesome). Even if Smash is far from a traditional fighting game, the crossover here is fantastic.
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#23: Pikachu

Something tells me I am making someones day with this ranking. I like Pikachu, hes an awesome yellow mouse thing. Unfortunately for Pikachu, hes not Raichu, who I like quite a bit more. Also, I was a Pikachu main in vanilla Smash, and then Pikachu got nerfed to the ground. Or well, out of the sky high position he was in before, even though I had absolutely no idea he was actually top tier. We didnt have the internet then. Playing Pikachu in Melee just felt so drastically different that I had to abandon the character altogether. There is no return, playing him just feels like a shell of his original form. Hes still a good character, hes just so damn unsatisfying to play.
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I really wish we'd gotten Raichu as an echo.
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#22: Cloud

Cloud is up here for one reason and one reason only: He fulfills years and years of Link vs Cloud contest-induced fantasies. There isn't much of a reason for Cloud of all characters to be in Smash, hes never really been on a Nintendo console. He represents a very specific breaking point of Nintendo and Square even. But who gives a shit, because we can literally set up CPU fights of Link vs Cloud and watch them beat each other up in physical digital form. Hes not even one of my favorite Square characters, but his FF7 attacks transferring over to Smash are honestly pretty well done too. Wonder what is more likely to happen first, a new Smash game being released after Ultimate or an FF7 Remake released to completion. I'll take Smash.
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red13n posted...

hes never really been on a Nintendo console

Obligatory Chain of Memories mention.
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Cloud is also in some weird spinoffs like that song one
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In all seriousness, Cloud is the best possible representative of Final Fantasy and JRPGs as a whole. He's the closest thing to a face for the genre, even if he's maybe not the most interesting or appropriate choice on a Nintendo platform.
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Hey, FF7 is coming to the Switch pretty soon.
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Mewtwo59 posted...

Hey, FF7 is coming to the Switch pretty soon.

Soon Nintendo will have all the pre-XI FFs except for VIII. I still wonder why they snubbed it.
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I also thought PIkachu got pretty boring after 64 for some reason, he was my OG main and the main reason I got into the series to begin with. Which is weird cuz it's not like he was particuarly bad, especially in Brawl and Wii U where he was high tier as well.
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#21: Falco

What? There are 3 of them you say? Well its my list and I don't care, I can have all 3 of them if I want to. Falco and Fox get further apart from each other every iteration after their intial bout of being near carbon copies. Falco is probably hurt because my most wanted characters for Smash included 2 birds one of which I'm pretty sure took a lot of inspiration from Falco and probably hurt his chances. So I definitely hold that against him. With Wolf back and Wolf having a much different playstyle from the two, Falco takes a little bit of a backseat from where he likely would have been in a Wii U version of this list.
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#20: Greninja

Greninja was one of those "Hey this Pokemon look like he'd fit right in Smash" Pokemon, and so he fit right in Smash. Unfortunately, a couple his specials in particular feel real derivative of other characters, on top of feeling like inferior versions on top of that. Greninja is still pretty awesome to play, but a lot of his deception ends up the type of move that works when someone is unfamiliar and then is useless once its been seen once or twice. Also Greninja seemed like an obvious addition and then Decidueye seemed like an obvious edition. Except they had to screw us over and give Incineroar.
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#19: Isabelle

Another character that showed up on every leak and made people gullible because Isabelle, outside of Inkling, was the most obvious addition to a new Smash possible. Isabelle's popularity is absolutely insane and despite Nintendo constantly snubbing Tom Nook there was absolutely no way Isabelle was going to get snubbed. People really like their cute yellow dog girl. She is a way preferable AC rep for me instead of Villager, but can we one day finally get Tom Nook in the game? Seriously. They've teased him in enough Smash trailers already.
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#18: Diddy Kong

Despite being one of my favorite characters outside of Smash that is in Smash, something about playing Diddy Kong is incredibly unsatisfying. I don't know if its the rocket barrel or underwhelming peanut gun, but something feels off. Maybe its that I don't like feeling like I have to carry a banana peel around everywhere or something. Something just feels off. Or maybe I have underlying annoyance that I actually prefer Dixie to Diddy(I think both are awesome characters, though) and she is a consistent Smash snub. Either way, Diddy is a character I always feel I never play as much as I thought I might.
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Put tom nook in as a boss that you can only fight in coin battles plz
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Yassss
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red13n posted...

ExThaNemesis posted...

Anagram posted...

There's a chance this will be Snake's final non-pachinko appearance.

Holy fuck dude why you gotta make me want to cry like that.

Walking through any casino and seeing all the Konami logos is a truly terrible experience.

'terrible because I want to see a real gaming machine

give me fucking mario slots and take my money
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#17: Jigglypuff

Jigglypuff was possibly the most confusing character to be in the original Smash. Jigglypuff was a random Pokemon and without an internet near its current form most people had absolutely no idea how stupidly popular Jigglypuff was in Japan. Still, Jigglypuff was oddly fun to play even if some of her specials were useless. In those days, rest seemed like the most perplexing and handicapping move to people. And then it hit and people were confused. As we get further from the launch of Smash, Jigglypuff, while kind of a staple, definitely feels more of an oddity on the roster. There is no mascot status that follows Pikachu and Lucario here. Just an old Pokemon stuck with us for some reason.
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I wonder if Sakurai regrets Jigglypuff's inclusion. It's not as popular in Japan as it once was, it's almost been cut from multiple Smash games, and it's clearly the most pointless of the original 12.
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#16: Sonic

Fulfilling everyones Mario vs Sonic outdated fantasies here. Sonic is, at the very least, a hell of a lot more fun to play than Mario. He feels fast, which is good. The bad, is that almost all of his specials feel like variations of the same move(Minus up). Unfortunately, as you can tell from his status in our contests here, Sonic being in Smash is more of him attempting to cling to relevancy than a titan joining the cast. Hes still a neat third party character, and rolling around as Sonic can be a lot of fun, but hes nowhere near the iconic character he once was.
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* i slap isabelle butt *
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Jigglypuff probably got added because it was easy to copy most of Kirby's A moves for it. They changed a bunch in Melee so they weren't direct copies, but they were in Smash 64. In fact, all of the unlockables except Ness in Smash 64 were easy copies of someone. (Captain Falcon just got the moves of the OC they made before it was a crossover.)
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#15: Charizard

Do you like slow lumbering fire dragons? Cause Charizard is a big slow lumbering fire dragon. And don't get me wrong, I think Charizard is pretty cool, but hes definitely not my slow and lumbering character of choice. Also they gave him an extra attack in Smash 4 just to have to take something away in Ultimate since Pokemon trainer is coming back. Thats kind of a strange decision.
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you have less than 6 hours

give us the top 14 before then
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I am absolutely determined to finish before launch(Is launch confirmed midnight EST?).
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#14: Duck Hunt

Do you like projectile spam? I hope you like projectile spam because Duck Hunt is full of nostalgia induced projectile spam. But forget about that, The Dog from Duck Hunt is the original troll. You missed the ducks? Hes going to laugh at you. He takes pleasure in your failure. Hes small moments in Duck Hunt forever cemented him as a gaming icon. Of all the nostalgia characters they randomly throw in, Duck Hunt is honestly the most iconic, since Pac-Mans current form sucks. Also, instead of just making the Dog, they teamed up the Dog with the Bird and they are somehow best friends and it is adorable as all hell. Also I still have my NES and zapper but I am too afraid to see if they work on any of our TV's. My guess is no.
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NES zappers only work on CRT TVs, so you're out of luck if you don't have one of those lying around.
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Mewtwo59 posted...

Jigglypuff probably got added because it was easy to copy most of Kirby's A moves for it. They changed a bunch in Melee so they weren't direct copies, but they were in Smash 64. In fact, all of the unlockables except Ness in Smash 64 were easy copies of someone. (Captain Falcon just got the moves of the OC they made before it was a crossover.)

I feel like if you were going to copy someone else, you could still do better than Jigglypuff.
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#13: Ivysaur

Fun fact Ivysaur was the first character I played in Brawl(At a gamestop midnight event), I got some pretty good cheers from the crowd for busting him out. It was fun. It is too bad Pokemon Trainer was such a chore to play because Ivysaur in Smash is pretty awesome. In a game full of bipeds and Pikachu who goes half and half on that front, Ivysaur is the unique out of the box rep Pokemon should get more of. Even Pokken was pretty guilty of shafting most of the quadrupeds for a biped heavy roster. Ivysaur attacking with vines and leaves and stuff gives him the title of at least the most unique Pokemon character, and that is a very good thing to be.
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Launch is 9:00 PST
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#12: Kirby

Perhaps the best part of a newcomer in Smash is seeing just what the hell Kirby is going to look like after sampling his new treat. Still, Kirby actually has the Pikachu problem. The further you get from vanilla Smash, the more you realize just how inferior Kirby has become. Also, as satisfying as it is to eat people as Kirby...its tough. People just aren't going to let you eat them after the game has been out a week and they are no longer letting you eat to satisfy their curiosity. I do appreciate how Kirby is essentially the main character in Smash.
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red13n posted...

#66: Lucina

Have I mentioned there are 4 of these things? Thats a bit much. Lucina is female Marth. There isn't a whole lot else to her as far as Smash is concerned(Yes, there are differences, no, I don't care). She is unlikely to be the last echo or clone hurt in this way here.

I'm fine with Lucina being a playable character. Prior to Lucina's addition to Smash, there were no female characters from Fire Emblem as playable characters yet.

red13n posted...

But Decidueye/Lycanroc/Zeraora were my dream and Incineroar crushed that dream.

I would have been fine with all of those over Incineroar.

NFUN posted...

also lycanroc and zeraora suck ass

Lycanroc would have been pretty good for the game, although Midnight Form is better suited for a playable character than Midday Form.
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#11: Bowser Jr.

Forget Bowser Jr, the best part of this character is to be able to pick whatever Koopa Kid you wanted. There is something for everyone in character selection here and I've seen people play just about all of them. Thats the mark of successful character skins right there. Hell I've seen people play regular old Bowser Jr. Sitting in the Bowser car for the attacks is a pretty awesome way to make this possible without affecting gameplay and they are full of unique and creative attacks. They are a great character to just pick up and play when you want a nice casual break every now and then.
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Also here is what I have left for the top 10 which leaves me very certain and very thankful that I didn't fuck this up.

Yoshi
Fox
Bowser
Sheik
Dr. Mario
Pichu
Lucario
Toon Link
Wolf
Ridley
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Panthera posted...

I don't get the Decidueye hype, that thing looks like it just crawled out of a garbage dump and "kinda sorta does ghost arrow stuff" doesn't feel like it would fit as well as a Smash character as pro wrestler cat

The reason people wanted Decidueye more is because of the Pokemon fans. Where as Incineroar has a lot of haters from the Pokemon fanbase, Decidueye is easily the most popular Gen 7 starter within the Pokemon fanbase.
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Also I got the hard part out of the way and have just a little over 5 hours to spare.

I'm pretty sure I know exactly how the rest of the list goes so I can take a breath. Plenty of time and I'll make it easy.
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hell

fucking

yes

top 10
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Your top ten has...maybe two characters at most that would even be in the running for top ten if I were ranking them. I wonder if they'll be 9th and 10th on the list!
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Panthera posted...

Your top ten has...maybe two characters at most that would even be in the running for top ten if I were ranking them.

This. I know one of them is #1 though
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Panthera posted...

Your top ten has...maybe two characters at most that would even be in the running for top ten if I were ranking them. I wonder if they'll be 9th and 10th on the list!

In my case it would be only one, and mostly because of the character because I still have to try his moveset out (Ridley).

The others... probably not even top 20.

Wolf and Fox are my boys

Yoshi and Bowser I don't play much as in Smash but they're my favorite Mario characters

Ridley I'm interested in trying for Ultimate
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I wish I was better with heavy characters, then I might actually play Bowser on occasion.
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#10: Dr. Mario

I feel like a lot of people have one part of the Mario trio that they primarily play. For me, I didnt really play much of Mario or Luigi until Dr. Mario got into the game. Hes just the right nod to the numerous Mario spinoff games while still being kind of a character on his own. Also maybe I'm crazy, I kind of like some of the sound effects on his attacks better than regular old Mario. He was much more natural for me to play in Brawl than in Wii U, so I don't turn to him as much anymore, but hes my Mario of choice. Also we played a lot of competitive Dr. Mario here when I was younger.
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I'd never really tried Mario until the SSB4 3DS' demo, and I was surprised that I actually liked him. But then I went back to not using him when the game came out oops.
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#9: Ridley

Ridley is just too big to keep dragging along. But seriously, since forever Samus has been the lone representation for the Metroid series and that was just dumb. Ridley probably should have been in the game a long time ago if they were going to cave and put him in. Metroid has been, despite not having the largest libraries, one of the most consistently great series Nintendo has put out. Ridley is a big awesome alien dragon thing and like most people I can't wait to give him a try. I fear he'll be too slow and lumbering to play regularly, but he was one of the most requested characters for good reason.
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#8: Bowser

That is it for the big and heavy. Bowser is honestly quite satisfying to play, outside of Bowsercide. Bowsercide is, was, and forever will be one of the dumbest things in the game. Also I've played a good bit of 8 player Smash. It is pure chaos. But the hitboxes on some of Bowser's attacks are so wonky that there are times where you go into the chaos and watch as all 7 other players go flying at once. Bowser just has some really satisfying attacks to connect with, even if he is so very, very slow. Bowser is just awesome anyway, and generally, any game with playable Bowser is going to be good(RPG Bowser is best Bowser).
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#7: Pichu

They made Pikachu unplayable so by default I played Pichu over him. Got a good kick out of the little guy and despite him sucking immensely he was a lot more fun to play than Pikachu. There is something immensely satisfying about beating people up with a tiny electric mouse. I'm pretty sure hes my least favorite of the Pika line but in Smash terms I just can't play Pikachu without feeling immense frustration. Pichu gets none of this frustration and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing if Pichu has gotten some much needed rebalancing.
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his side b is the best
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#6: Wolf

Yeah I didn't bring both of them together to the top 5. Believe me, I'm sure there is some alternate universe where I said fuck it and Fox/Wolf/Falco all made the top 5/10. Just about everything Wolf has feels much different from how similar Fox/Falco feel, which is a huge plus. The fact that Wolf somehow got cut is absolutely mind boggling. Despite the tendency to add villains from series to Smash, someone thought it was a good idea to cut the Star Fox villain representation. It made no goddamn sense. Wolf was the most unique character of the trio and somehow it was a good idea to cut him? You are fucking crazy. I'm sure all they did was make a lot of people angry. Wolf is pretty great, I mean, hes no fox, but still pretty great. I'm happy to have him back.
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